CSIRO Caught Between a Rock and a Hard Place. (November 18, 2004)

    In July 2002 Australasian Science published an opinion piece by former CSIRO Chief Max Whitten who wrote in part:

CSIRO's budget is contracting despite its proud record. The indisputable facts indicate a serious loss of research capacity within CSIRO. Garrett's predecessor, the late Malcolm McIntosh, slowed the erosion of resources slightly, but at a price. He stifled CSIRO's chiefs and scientists from public comment.

The situation today is much more serious. Things are happening inside our global leader of public good research that demand debate. For instance, CSIRO's successful National Awareness Program has been abandoned and its principal architects gone.

Half the divisional chiefs are looking elsewhere for jobs. Internal surveys revealed many top managers are severely stressed. New chiefs are offered 3-year appointments, hardly a recipe for attracting top quality research leaders and building the future.

CSIRO has largely lost its corporate memory after a steady stream of high-level departures from its headquarters. Informed insiders say that CSIRO's request for a deferral of its triennium funding stems more from an incapacity to argue its case than the prospect of lean pickings in the current climate.

Since then Australasian Science, principally through the writings of Peter Pockley, has continued to point out the the pressures placed on the organisation by the Federal Government which has further eroded CSIRO's contribution to research "for the public good". In Dr Pockley's most recent assessment he writes:

Buried in the security policy of the Coalition, released only in the final week of the election and unreported, was confirmation of the government’s push to reverse CSIRO’s once-treasured and statutory responsibility as a purely civil agency of science... Now, under Howard, CSIRO has been fundamentally neutered by the government’s policy on science and technology for “national security”, quoted here in full [it is to]:

Establish a special collaborative research and development programme between the Defence Science and Technology Organisation (DSTO), the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) and the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation to further their work on counter terrorism related projects. Projects will focus on chemical and biological protection, intelligence support tools, explosive detection, biometrics and counter measures for civilian aircraft from shoulder fired missiles (MANPADS). This programme will be established using the existing resources of these three organisations.

As Dr Pockley point out, "By definition, the work and outcomes will be shrouded in secrecy. Equally serious is that CSIRO’s 'leadership' is having to fund it from existing appropriations with no defined limits." Whether or not you share Dr Pockley's disquiet as regards moving CSIRO into working on matters to further the nation's security through classified research, it is remarkable that the Coalition Government while diminishing the resources it places at the disposal of the organisation, and pressures it to seek ever more diligently funding from the private sector, it now expects its scientists to reorient and competently carry out work on counter terrorism related projects. Projects [that] will focus on chemical and biological protection, intelligence support tools, explosive detection, biometrics and counter measures for civilian aircraft from shoulder fired missiles.

The irrationality of the Government's expectation is monumental.